The drive to bring tens of thousands of jobs and homes to the emerging high-tech corridor in east Orange County received a boost last month when preliminary approval was given for 10,000 new homes near the Econlockhatchee River.
Besides sending a signal that Orange County is pushing ahead with plans to develop Innovation Way despite a sluggish economy, the move establishes still another future battleground between advocates for growth and environmentalists.
At the Sept. 25 meeting of the Local Planning Agency, a county advisory board, members voted in favor of sending forward for state review a plan to create a large-scale residential development on 4,578 acres in rural east Orange County, known as Innovation Way East.
Representatives of the property owner, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the proposal was initiated at this early stage so that it would be included in the long-range planning for the much larger Innovation Way corridor, which stretches from the University of Central Florida to Orlando International Airport, including the Lake Nona “medical city”.
Eventually, county officials envision that Innovation Way will create 83,200 high-wage jobs, 42,500 residences and 30 million square feet of commercial development within clustered activity centers connected by roads and some form of rail transit. In recommending the plan’s transmittal, LPA members advanced the debate that will undoubtedly be repeated in the months and years to come.
These issues include: compatibility of development with the surrounding remote and fragile environment; and the need to preserve the environmentally sensitive land, wildlife corridors and water supplies of the area. Pete Betterman, who represents 700 homes as president of the Lake Mary Jane Alliance, opposes the project for all of the reasons above, plus he questions the economic viability of the project.
Citing the current disrepair of the economy in general, he points to a lack of funding and will on the part of local government to support mass transit, such as Lynx and commuter rail, which is critical to the success of Innovation Way. “If your whole concept is built on multimodal transportation, is that realistic?” Betterman asked.
“It is completely unfunded.” Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart has similar concerns. “I myself have a lot of questions that need to be resolved,” she said. “Of course, the one major issue that I’m still struggling with is that the infrastructure be in place to support the Innovation Way corridor.”
Innovation Way update
Although Innovation Way remains
based more in word than deed, the planning
for this high-tech corridor has been
long and thorough.
While Orange County Mayor Crotty
proposed the creation of Innovation Way
in 2004, the original planning for the area
dates back to the mid-1980s when
International Corporate Park, comprised
of 3,000 acres straddling the BeachLine
Expressway, was approved for 20 million
square feet of industrial development.
This project, however, remained stagnant for decades, owing to a lack of infrastructure and overall planning for the area. But all this changed in 2006, when development guidelines for Innovation Way were approved by the Board of County Commissioners.
As a prerequisite for moving forward, the county designated an Innovation Way Study Area, extending from the BeachLine Expressway to the Osceola County line and from Narcoossee Road east to the Econ River. This study looked at various alternatives of development for the 32,000-acre site. Ultimately, the Compact Village Scenario was selected, calling for clustered, mixed-use activity centers, developed away from environmentally sensitive lands, to be connected by a multimodal transportation system.
“All of this property is located west of the Econ River and we’re not, in any way, talking about moving across that river,” said David Heath, Orange County deputy administrator. Heath explained that the creation Innovation Way is made easier because of the large tracts of land that comprise the high-tech corridor.
Each of the proposed developments, now in various stages of approval, include a mix of commercial and residential development. Innovation Way East, which includes the area that just received an initial goahead for 10,000 homes, is one such expansive tract.
County commissioners will take their first look at this issue at its Oct. 28 meeting, with a final decision not expected until some time next year. Susan Caswell, manager of the Orange County planning division, said the goal of Innovation Way is to create a community where all the components — high-tech centers, town centers and urban community villages — work well together.
“These are intended to be completely integrated neighborhoods with a variety of uses, and they’re also intended to be well connected within and to each other,” she said. The multimodal transportation system will include streets and corridors accommodating vehicular traffic as well as alternative modes of transportation, such as rail lines and bicycle trails.
“We are developing an area where automobile mobility is secondary,” she added. In response to guidelines approved by the County Board, Innovation Way also will provide housing within close proximity of job centers to limit commuter travel. Innovation Place, a planned development already approved for 5,500 residential units and 3.5 million square feet of commercial space, was the first project that fell under this mandated link between jobs and housing.
As a result, 10 percent of the new-home construction will be designated as “workforce housing,” affordable at 80 percent of the median income, Caswell said. Another critical aspect in the growthplanning process for Innovation Way is the goal of protecting the existing environment and wildlife, particularly along the eastern portion that overlaps with the Econ River Protection Area.
To preserve the natural habitat of wildlife, there will be no development allowed within 550 feet of the river, and only limited development within 1,100 feet. In addition, the county is establishing a stewardship program that requires a certain proportion of land to be preserved for every so many acres of development, excluding wetlands that will not be developed under any circumstances.
Lori Cunniff, manager of the county’s environmental protection division, said this concept will help maintain wildlife corridors and preserve environmentally sensitive lands. Betterman worries that the protection of wildlife would be compromised by the plan to build 10,000 homes. “This parcel sits right smack in the middle of a north-south wildlife corridor,” he said.
Road improvement update
Of course, another key factor in the
success of Innovation Way is developing
the necessary infrastructure.
“This whole program does not work
without a strong foundation of multimodal
transportation,” said Jim Harrison,
director of growth management for
Orange County.
He acknowledged, however, that the immediate need is for roadways to provide increased accessibility to this area. The extension of South Alafaya Trail, known as the Innovation Way roadway, is already complete but remains closed to traffic until a connection with the BeachLine Expressway is established.
Harrison explained that construction of a new S.R. 528 interchange was initially timed to be done in conjunction with Innovation Way, but several problems surfaced to delay the project, primarily the changeover in ownership of the ICP property. As a result, this new interchange — a public-private partnership between the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, Orange County and the Suburban Land Reserve, a subsidiary of the Mormon Church that owns ICP — is not expected to be finished until the end of 2010.
In the interim, SLR is currently finishing up design work to build a connector road between Innovation Way and S.R. 528. “This will be constructed by the property owner with construction to be complete, if all goes well, by the end of 2009,” Harrison said. “At that point we will have a connection to the BeachLine and we will be able to open that entire roadway system.”
Eventually, the Innovation Way roadway will extend south of the BeachLine, veering west to connect with S.R. 417 along two distinct routes. At the present time, however, these parallel highways are without funding or a timetable for construction.
Harrison explained that the funding model for the 13 miles of arterial roadways planned for the high-tech corridor assumes the county will pay 50 percent with development impact fees, with the rest funded through a land-based assessment system. Funding for the future transit system, he said, will come from tax-increment financing generated in the area as well as state and federal sources.
Meanwhile, work on building the necessary interchanges on S.R. 417 for these roads is underway. The interchange for Innovation Way North will be completed by the end of 2009, while the interchange for Innovation Way South, at Moss Park Road, will be done by January 2010. Progress also is being made on the widening of South Alafaya Trail, between Mark Twain and Avalon Park boulevards.
Design work for this project is now complete, with construction set to begin in December 2009. With a 24-month construction schedule, the expansion project will be completed by the end of 2011, Harrison said. This project, as well as other progress tied to Innovation Way, continues to be a major concern for residents.
“I go all over the county and people are always asking, ‘What’s going on with Innovation Way?’” said Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal. “A great part of our economic future is out at Innovation Way.”
